To Charleston
by Falconswoop
Summary: The First and Fifth New York managed to stumble over the Second Massachusetts. There are new character and old. How will this all work out? M for language and later chapters
1. Chapter 1

Tami muttered a curse over her shoulder. Her friends had gotten almost as reckless as she was. That wouldn't do. They were on a mission, not one that she could just jump in and save them if they got stuck in a rough spot.

The First and Fifth New York needed to know what the people one of their patrols had stumbled over were about. The patrol, which had consisted of a couple of her friends, had reported sightings of a fairly large camp. Supposedly it seemed to operate a lot like their own, but Captain Williams and Captain Rushmore was always safe and, therefore, barely ever sorry.

"Ashton, Johnson, you two circle around and see how many sentries they have set. Benbow, you and Kayla stay here and wait for them to report back, keep an eye on my back and if there's any trouble go back and warn the captains." Tami knew that she was going to do something stupid, her friends could probably sense it too. But, that was the norm.

"And what's your part in this, Tam?" Tyler Benbow looked at her, an eyebrow cocked suspiciously.

"I'm going to see if I can slip in and catch some noise about what their plans are, and hopefully who they are." She gave a small shrug, trying to pull off nonchalance even though her heart was pounding.

Ashton sighed and stepped toward her, reaching to the back of her neck he pulled her hood strategically up her neck to cover her metal spikes. He and Ariel, who was back at camp, were the only others with spikes that hadn't gone away. Tyler Benbow and about seven others had been rescued with them, but apparently the longer you were harnessed, the more permanent the spikes were. "Try not to get yourself into too much trouble."

"It's the razorbacks' jobs to save us, don't mess that up." Tyler Johnson growled, ever sarcastic. But Tami knew he meant it affectionately.

So then they split up, Benbow climbed up into a tree to get a good vantage point, Kayla slipped in under some brush, and Ashton took the lead as he and Johnson started on their trail. Tami chuckled a little, knowing they would end up arguing over which paths to take and whatnot, but they were a good pair, both all duty and Tami kept them close because they were pretty loyal.

As she started through the trees as quietly as she could, Tami tugged at her hood, just to make sure she was covered. It wasn't hard to slip past a group of rough looking people, all armed and leaning on some vehicle. After that nobody seemed to pay her much mind. A few people gave her funny glances, but she figured it was because they were trying to figure out why they didn't recognize her. She rounded a big tent that was in what seemed to be the center of the camp and felt her mouth drop open a little.

There was a boy standing with his back to her, and she saw spikes sticking out of his neck just above the collar of his jacket. The men that were talking to him were all in a circle around a table with maps laid out on them. Tami knew this had to be important because they were all dressed as soldiers and they all kept calling one of them "Captain Weaver." So she slipped back into the shadow that the canvas of the tent cast and settled in to listen.


	2. Chapter 2

(author's note: Hi! This is my first story and the first chapter was pretty short, if you stuck around I hope you like this one, it has more familiar characters! I'll update as often as possible!)

She had gotten their entire plan. They were heading south, same as the First and Fifth New York. The woman in the plane had told them about Charlotte as well. They were the Second Massachusetts, called themselves the Second Mass. Their first in command was that Captain Weaver, second was a guy named Tom, she thought she had heard the last name Mason. Two voices that sounded a bit younger than the rest called him dad.

So, they were just a group of people trying to survive and fight back. But it seemed like they had more people than the New Yorkers, though if they weren't hostile, then that wouldn't be a problem. After she figured all that out, Tami pushed herself off the ground and nearly slammed into a group of four people. Her legs had fallen asleep and she had lost her balance right when she stood.

They all turned to look at her. The one woman in the group had a stethoscope around her neck. Not good for Tami, she knew that doctors almost always knew all the people in the camp. The others were men from the tent. The boy that was a razorback like her was opposite her, she almost didn't recognize him from the front. Then there was a boy that seemed just a bit older then the razorback and a man that she guessed was their father, which she figured would make him Tom Mason.

"Hello, are you new here?" The woman addressed her, making all of the men look suspiciously at her.

Before answering Tami quickly checked to make sure her spikes were covered, "uhm, no I've been here all the way sense Boston." She could've punched herself, she didn't have a Bostonian accent and she had stuttered.

"Oh, really, how haven't I met you then? I tried to give everybody a check up at least once when we were at the school, and that wrist looks like it's been treated more than once." The woman gave her a small encouraging smile.

Again Tami cursed herself, of course a taped up wrist that the local doctor hadn't taped would be a giveaway. "I played a lot of sports before, so I learned how to do it myself." She tried to nonchalantly shrug.

"Then where'd you get the gun?" The older boy looked at her shoulder, where the strap of her M16 was hanging.

She was getting desperate, "found it, picked it up, started fighting." Her eyes drifted toward the trees that she knew her friends would still be hiding in. Johnson and Ashton would surely be back by then.

That's when she felt the barrel of a gun at her lower back, it had barely missed one of her spikes. "Name. Where you're from. How many are with you."

"Tami, upstate New York, I'm with the First and Fifth New York, all together we're about ninety-seven strong, but that's not really counting the kids." She sighed, praying that her friends wouldn't overreact to her situation.

"And you're going to put that gun down." She groaned out loud as each person from her patrol stepped out to point a gun at each person's head. She recognized Ashton's voice but didn't see him, so she figured he was probably pointing at the man holding the gun to her back.

"We hear any gun go off and all of ours do." Benbow snarled from where he stood behind to razorback boy. "Hey, Tam, get a load of this!"

Tami quickly cut him off, "shut it, Ty!"

Johnson sparked an eyebrow at her but before they could have any silent exchange she felt the pressure of the gun leave her back. When she looked outside of their little group she saw fighters looking helplessly to their leaders, who were at gun point.

"So what's the plan now guys?" Tami growled, "swing in, point those guns around and walk out of here? God, I thought I had taught you something!"

"Then you shouldn't have gotten yourself into trouble." Ashton mocked her.

"I was handling it!" She growled as she swung her own gun up to point at the man behind her, from his age and the voice she had heard from a moment ago. "Go back to camp, get the Captains, bring them back and we'll be captives until then." She tossed her weapon back over her shoulder and shot glares at all her friends, who quickly followed suit. "Tell them exactly how this happened."

She had to yell the last part because Ashton knew they wouldn't let him go running off if their leaders weren't in danger any longer.

"So, Tami?" The middle aged man, who she had assumed was Tom Mason spoke up as he turned his gun on one of her friends.

"That's me." She sighed, "hurt any of them and your captain'll have quite the slow death." She hated threatening other humans, but she had her pistol, which had been at her hip, pointed at the captain's abdomen.

"Well, how about we stop threatening each other and talk for a bit while we wait for your captains to get here." He lowered his gun as he spoke and gave her an encouraging smile. "I'm Tom Mason, and you probably already figured this out, but you almost infiltrated the Second Massachusetts."

"Nice to meet you." She muttered as they all started to move into the central tent. She realized she was walking next to Tyler Johnson and took her chance. Her fist swung back and slammed dead into the side of his face. "You're supposed to be one of the smart ones!"

"Woah!" She felt her arms being pulled behind her back, she didn't struggle though, she had done what she needed to. "I'm Hal, by the way." The guy holding her introduced himself, sounding fairly confused.

"You can let go, I did what I needed to." She grumbled, feeling his hand s release she hel her hand out to Johnson and he sighed.

"Why can't you just use your words, ever?" He groaned while rubbing his face where her fist had already left a mark.

"Because, obviously my words don't get through to any of you." She snapped, turning on her other friends, who all were staring at their feet, "what were my words again, Kayle?"

"Keep an eye on your back and if there's any trouble go back and warn the captains." Kayla grumbled, "but it sucks always having to get help when you're in trouble but when we get into a sticky situation, you run in all Rambo and save our asses. Not to mention I'm sick of you getting yelled at for everything any of our patrols do wrong."

"That's how it works, Kay, I'm okay with that." She sighed, reaching to the back of her neck, her hood had slid down a little bit, but she fixed it.

"Alright, Supergirl, we learned our lesson, let's talk to the people we don't know." Benbow cut in, "oh, and I think you noticed but apparently the First and Fifth aren't the only ones who figured out how to take off the harnesses."

"You guys have taken harnesses off?" The boy who was a razorback stepped forward. "Do you know what to do about the left over spikes?"

Tom Mason cut in and stepped forward. "Sorry, this is my son, Ben, Hal is also mine, and this is our Captain Weaver. The women outside was Dr. Anne Glass. Now can you tell us about your Harness removing process? Do you know how to get rid of the left over spikes?"

Tami glanced around at her patrol group, only to find that they were all shifting uncomfortably and looking at her. When she looked back at the Second Mass Men they had picked up on that she was the one with the information. "They pump us with morphine while cutting the spikes one by one. Probably the exact same way they did for you." She glanced at the razorback, Ben, and hoped they wouldn't push.

"What about the spikes?" Hal raised an eyebrow at her.

"Maybe you should talk to our captains, I mean, they know more of the mechanics of it all probably, but I just know that most kids' bodies get rid of them and the few that had the bugs for too long don't get rid of the pretty little body piercings." She had made that joke before, with Ariel and Ashton. They understood. If she didn't joke about it and take out her anger through blowing up those alien scum, she would fall apart.

"Exactly as far as we've gotten." The doctor made Tami jump as she walked into the tent. "Not the only one who can sneak around." She flashed Tami a smile, making her feel slightly uncomfortable.

"So these are the camp intruders, huh?" A blonde haired girl followed the doctor in.

Tami shot angry glances at her friends and then sighed, "I don't think we all introduced ourselves."

Before she could finish Benbow interrupted her, "you are so not about to suggest an ice breaker!" He laughed to himself and the others couldn't help but join in.

"I was just going to say all your name, dumbass!" Tami growled but the idea of an icebreaker made her smile too.

"Oh please, Razor, you were going to go all mommy on us!" Benbow chuckled, "okay, so we'll go clockwise, say your name and something interesting about yourself." He mimicked her voice and flashed her a smile, before realizing that he had called her Razor, which was short for their razorback nickname.

"Razor, huh, you know, I thought you said your name was Tami." Their captain Weaver was looking at her skeptically.

"It's a nickname." She growled, reaching up to the back of her neck unconsciously to tug at her hood. Her eyes were drawn to Ben, who seemed to have been watching her for a while now.

"You said us." The razorback said, almost angrily.

"Hey, let's start that icebreaker!" Kayla cried, trying to sound cheerful. Her eyes betrayed her though, as she looked at Tami worriedly.

"I like that idea." Tom said, with a forced smile. Tami saw his hand reach up and wrap comfortingly around the back of Ben's neck.

"I'll start!" Kayla cried, waving her hand for a moment. "I'm Kayla Dean! An interesting thing about me is that before all this, I was captain of our schools quidditch team, which was actually co-captained by our lovely Tami!"

Without a second thought Benbow started, "Hey, my names Tyler Benbow, everybody calls me Benbow. I had never touched a gun before Tami stuck one in my hands and convinced that it wasn't the end just because I was brainwashed for a bit."

"I'm Tyler Johnson, call me Johnson. My interesting fact is probably that I am the worst singer in this room." He made himself chuckle and the rest of his group couldn't help.

"He's also the least funny." Tami added, with a smile. "You all seem to know that my name's Tami, Tami Kent. There's nothing to interesting about me, other than the whole quidditch co-captain thing." She shrugged and glanced at the doctor next to her.

"I'm Dr. Anne Glass. I was a pediatrician before all this, and I've pretty much turned into a field doctor and surgeon." She flashed Tom a smile and Tami could sense something there but ignored it.

"Name's Maggie and…" But the blonde was cut off as a couple of soldiers escorted three familiar faces into the tent.

"What'd you get yourself into?" Her captain sighed as he stepped around Captain Williams.

"At least she's yours, I just have to scold the Tylers a bit, none of mine were leading this one." Captain Williams sighed.

Their patrol had been a mix of First and Fifth people, just as they had try to keep all the patrols. But, Williams was right, Tami had lead the mission and had managed to let it get screwed up.

"I'm sorry, sir." Tami muttered, tilting her head down in submission.

"I know." Rushmore was looking at her with a small sympathetic smile. He strode over to her and patted her back, muttering low into her ear. "Ashton told me what happened. You're not taking the fall for this one."

Tami sighed and shot Ashton a glance. She mouthed a _thanks_ and stepped behind her captain.

"I apologize for this mess, we wanted to find out if we could trust you and it appears to me as though we have similar goals." Rushmore took charge, just as Tami had hoped he would.

"Let's chat then." Weaver nodded.

"Leave us, children." Williams ordered Tami and her friends back to camp with a condescending wave of his hand.

Tami could see the venom dripping from all of her friends' glares as they looked at Williams on their way out of the tent. To her surprise, when she glanced back she saw Weaver and Tom nodding their own soldiers away, including Hal, Ben, and Maggie.

"We'll walk you back to your camp." Hal said, his tone leaving no room for argument. That didn't sit well with Tami, but she took point anyway and started back through the trees, toward the small cul-de-sac they had claimed as base camp.


	3. Chapter 3

It took about ten minutes to walk from the Second Mass. Their patrols probably would have stumbled over them on their next round anyway, but it made Tami uneasy to have three strangers following them back. But she was pulled from her thoughts when she heard Maggie speaking.

"Hey, Ben, you're not alone!" The blonde was jerking a finger at the back of Ashton's neck.

"What?" Ben growled at the girl.

"I'm a razorback, like you." Ashton shrugged, he was better at being nonchalant about the spikes. At that Tami tugged at her hood again to make sure her spikes were covered again.

"You don't have to hide them." She heard Ben's voice mutter from behind her.

"What?" She growled, hoping she sounded as annoyed as he had.

"Your spikes, your one of us too, aren't you?"The blonde boy grunted.

At first Tami's cheeks flushed, she had never had anybody accept her spikes right off the bat, exempting Ariel and Ashton of course. Her parents had refused her. The man she called Dad had freaked out about her spikes, and her mother had followed suit. Sadly both her brothers were too young to choose to run off with a different regiment. Tami turned to stare at him for a moment. She had no idea what she wanted to say, but after her quick reminiscence she wanted to spit something venomous.

Ashton must have seen that she was mentally warring on herself, as she did so often, and stepped forward. "Come on." He muttered, placing a hand firmly on her shoulder to turn her around and force her to walk toward the house that their young troupe was staying in.

"We're back to camp, you can go now." Johnson stepped in front of Hal and squared his shoulders. Hal and Maggie were older than all of Tami's patrol, but that didn't stop both Tylers from standing in his path and trying to look tough. All of her friends had been rubbed the wrong way by the way Ben had talked to her.

"Hal, Ben, come on." Maggie called from the tree line.

"Hey, guys! Your back!" Ariel came running around the side yard with a stethoscope swung around her neck. She had gone through four in her time as med assistant because of her spikes, but they weren't hard to come by, so nobody complained.

"The razorbacks are all reunited!" Her boyfriend, Dan, followed behind a few paces. He had been a major part in saving them, so they didn't mind that he joked with them about the spikes.

"Who're they?" Ariel paused as she took in the three extra people, obviously unsure of how to approach.

"They're leaving." Tami growled.

"Not quite." The horribly condescending voice of Captain Williams called from the trees as he, Rushmore, Tom Mason, and a few unfamiliar men came out of the forest.

All of the teens straightened at the appearance of the authority figures. Tami gritted her teeth and she knew that if her patrol was pushed much farther that night one of them would snap. In the back of her mind she knew that she was included in that demographic.

Rushmore shot an irritated look at his partner and moved toward Tami, "they're going to stay the night with us and help us move out in the morning." He caught Tami as her mouth was about to form a sentence and interrupted. "It can't hurt to have a few extra hands around. I know you and the others could move us, but you haven't had real sleep in over a month and I know you'd like some more time for Lila."

"Who's Lila?" Tom Mason walked over to join their conversation as most of the First and Fifth headed off to bed.

Tami grabbed her bird call whistle out of her pocket and blew just hard enough for it to make a noise. A smile grew across her face as a draft mare came trotting around the house and broke into a gallop when she saw Tami. "This is Lila!" Tami squeaked as the mare slid to a stop and nudged her playfully. Not far behind, four more big draft horses came trotting up, two stallions, a gelding, and a mare.

"Steel Shanks!" Ashton called, turning back to be head butted by his horse.

Tami smiled as she turned to watch the others. Her smile turned to surprise as the biggest stallion walked over to Ben Mason. "Magnum usually doesn't like strangers." She muttered, rubbing Lila's nose thoughtfully.

"The horse likes him, which means you have to at least semi-tolerate him." Her captain sighed, a nervous pitch sneaking into his voice.

"What're you getting at?" Tami muttered, turning to look at Rushmore, who stood next to Tom Mason.

"We can keep Tom and the soldiers in our house. The families would probably take the boys and Maggie in, but it'd be a lot easier to settle them in the house with you and your friends." Rushmore rested his hand on his shoulder and then started lead the Second Mass adults away. He knew she wouldn't refuse.

"Alright, my guys, Second Mass trio, time for bed." She called in her most order-like tone, "I'll take first sentry duty, that's two, it get's light at about seven-thirty now so we've got about eight hours. I need three other volunteers."

Automatically the three Second Mass hands went into the air. Her team was looking pleadingly at her and she gave them small nods. "Fine, I'll wake Hal up, Hal you'll get Maggie, and Ben you'll be last. We move out at dawn people, be ready." She shouted the last bit as she opened the door to the house she shared with most of the unharnessed kids.

Her friends dispersed to their rooms as she started heating a pot of water over the fire place. She glanced over her shoulder to see that the Second Mass kids hadn't moved from the doorway. "My rooms at the end of the hall, that's the only one that'll be open. If Ariel's in there, tell her that tonight's a night to visit Dan. I'll sleep on the couch in the extra living room after my watch."


	4. Chapter 4

She turned her attention back to the room and sighed, they only had four pieces of firewood left. They kept the fire going all night every night so that if it got low somebody in one of the other houses would know that the sentry had fallen asleep or there was something worse wrong. Each house' front living room could see into all the others, cookie cutter houses.

As she headed toward the kitchen to duck out the back door she was caught off guard by the boy standing at a book case down the hall. "Hey, it's bed time! Lights out! We move at dawn!" She grumbled. Tami couldn't tell who it was in the dim lighting, but they all knew that she was head of household.

"I was set for night sentry duty back at camp and I'd rather not share a room with my brother and his girlfriend." The now familiar voice of Ben Mason answered, as he started walking toward her.

Tami recoiled in surprise. Out of the entire Second Mass group, Ben Mason was the one she wanted to be alone with least. "I've got to go get more firewood. I don't really care what you do, but stay out of my hair."

Before he could say anything else Tami snatched up her M16 and hopped out the door. Her feet lead her down the path she had discovered earlier in the day and she picked up a few thick branches that were scattered here and there. It didn't take her long to here the soft footsteps following her. She also knew that it was the Second Mass razorback that was following her.

She waited until they were deep enough into the forest that if he yelled in surprise or anything they wouldn't disturb the sleeping houses. Then, she tucked her fire wood under one arm and reach to her hip, where there was a small pistol holstered. Her instincts help her slip behind a tree and she watched as the boy passed her, oblivious to the fact that she hadn't kept going up the trail.

"Why are you following me, Mason?" Tami growled stepping out from her hiding spot and cocked her pistol. She didn't actually plan on shooting him, just scaring him enough that he would leave her alone.

"You might have different ways of doing things around here, but I think my dad and brother would murder me if I let you go out alone." He didn't turn around as he spoke, he didn't seem at all surprised either.

"Well, they don't need to know and you can follow the path right back to the house and keep yourself busy for a while." She tried to put the tone of an order into her voice, but she was so tired that she just sounded exasperated.

"You're not supposed to go out alone, are you?" Ben seemed to have figured her out enough.

"That's not any of your concern." Tami felt herself getting more and more flustered by the boy in front of her, and she wasn't okay with it.

"Then I'll just go see how my dad's doing and, you know, maybe chat with your commander." The boy had gotten a twinkle to his eyes, something mischievous and almost playful.

"Whatever, you can come with me, I'm almost done anyway." The girl tucked her almost forgotten pistol back into its holster and then looked at the wood under her arm. "Take this." She grumbled, shoving it toward Ben.

He silently accepted the wood and the y started walking farther into the woods. Tami bent to grab pieces and Ben willing excepted more to his load. She had originally thought that she would stuff all of it into his hands, but as he stayed compliant with everything she ordered she started hanging onto the pieces she picked up. Soon she and Ben both had armfuls of wood and they started back.

As they grew closer Tami heard the noise that usually would welcome her home, Lila was whinnying and she could hear the stomping and kicking of the other horses. But, none of it was welcoming because the sounds of panic voices could be heard calling both of the teenagers' names.

They both picked up the pace and realized that they had gone deeper into the woods than they had meant to. The volume of their calls was starting to make Tami worry. If there were skitters anywhere nearby, they would probably hear them.

"We're here!" She cried, hoping an answer might quiet them.

"Yeah, we're coming!" Ben joined in.

When they stepped out of the trees quite a few relieved faces turned their way. But, the relief disappeared after a moment and they quickly had quite a few "where were you"s and "what were you thinking"s shooting their way.

Tami stepped forward so that she took the brunt of the blows. "We needed firewood and I figured it would be easiest if we just went."

"We told you they were fine." Captain Rushmore growled at Ben's older brother, who was glaring at Ben.

"Soldier, you disobeyed a direct order to go to bed!" Tami was infuriated, as well as exhausted. It appeared as though none of the Second Mass group were going to give her any respect.

"Look, we'll deal with everything in the morning, how about we all just go get as much sleep as we can now." Tom Mason seemed worried that he was over stepping his boundaries, but the relief at finding his son to be okay seemed to be over riding that.

"Don't go out again tonight, please." Her captain flashed Tami a smile before waving everyone back to their houses.

"Same to you, Ben." Tom walked over to his son and grabbed the back of his neck before walking after Rushmore.

As they walked into the house, Tami saw Hal sitting on the stairs, Maggie was standing over him, obviously trying to get him to go up to bed. She lead been over to where they kept the wood. While she added some of the wood to the fire, Ben walked back over to his brother.

"You raised the alarm?" Ben growled questioningly. "You raised the alarm when both me and the girl were gone. When it was obvious that we were together. What the hell were you thinking? And yelling like that, what if a skitter patrol passed nearby?"

"You're yelling at me when you left, without telling anybody where you were going, with some chick that you managed to piss off in you first few sentences to her." Hal retorted, disgust dripping in his voice.

Tami didn't know if she should cut in, but then she also new she was head of the ranks in their house and Hal wasn't listening to her. "Hal, I have a question for you." She stepped in between the two brothers with her back to Ben.

"What?" The older boy snapped.

"Do you follow orders well? Back at your camp, I mean." Tami asked, "do you ever just not listen to what Weaver or your dad or any other higher-ups tell you to do?"

"Of course I follow orders! I follow them to a T!" Hal snarled.

"Well, then you can go up to bed." Tami growled. "And I mean now."

"Where the hell do you come from?" Hal snarled, leaping to his feet.

"Some assholes that left me when they realized the bastards that took me had left a bit of an unnatural mark on my body." Tami snarled back. "That experience made me who I am, and who I am, is a person who has a lot higher ranking then you do. If you want to play soldier then you better get used to doing as you're told, or you're going to have a lot of problems when the First and Fifth New York join up with the Second Massachusetts." She was up in his face by the end. It ran through the back of her mind that he didn't deserve that much of a chewing out, but she was tired and she was sick of him ignoring her orders.

After that nobody seemed to have anything to say. Tami stepped back and then walked into the kitchen to find a mug and a packet of tea. She could hear two sets of footsteps going up the stairs. So, she waited to see which of the three was coming to talk to her. It had been stupid to lash out like that, especially people who didn't know her or her past.

"You want to talk about it?" Ben's voice asked from behind her.

"There's nothing to talk about, you should get some sleep." She muttered, walking back to the fire place with her mug and tea bag. The water hadn't quite boiled, but she didn't like it to be too hot.

Tami thought that Ben's silence had signaled that he was going off to sleep somewhere. But, when she turned from the fire with her tea he was sitting on the loveseat across from the big front window. The razorback girl decided she was too tired to boss anyone around, so she tossed one more piece of wood on the fire and walked over to sit next to him. "You want any?" She held up her mug.

"No thanks." Ben muttered as he started to get comfortable by lean his gun against the side of the couch and kicking his boots off. Tami could sense that he was quietly observing her.

"Did your family save you?" She asked, almost surprising herself.

"My dad and Hal did, with Doctor Glass and lots of soldier from the Second Mass." He shrugged, "what about you?"

"Most of the people in the First and Fifth are from the same areas of upstate. The Third and Forth were all from down state. Sixth was all city slickers. Seventh was a mix of people from everywhere. I wasn't exactly around when everybody got together to work it out, but from what I've heard it was complete chaos." She sighed, "but, anyway, I grew up with most of the people here. My track coaches are pretty high ranking soldiers now. In fact, Coach King was the one who saw me working for the skitters! A few other teachers recognized my friends, Tyler Benbow's parents are even here. After they got news of how to get the bugs off, they jumped to saving us."

Ben nodded, she knew her story probably wasn't satisfying, but she didn't want to add on the month after, but for some reason she felt like she had to tell him. "It was afterwards that sucked. I mean, the surgeries and everything were scary and painful, but you already know that." Tami paused to collect her thoughts a bit, "what was it like, afterward, for you?"

"Well, I was out for a long time and when I came to, there weren't many people who fully trusted me." Ben said, tilting his head slightly in thought. "In fact, the only people who really liked hanging out with me were my family. Matt thought it was pretty cool that I could do all this athletic stuff, like one of the first things I did was over a hundred push-ups, without breaking a sweat at all."

Tami raised an eye brow in curiosity, "who's Matt?"

"That's our little brother. He's a good kid." Ben answered, a smile touching his lips at the thought of the younger boy.

Tami found herself missing her little brothers terribly at that moment. But, as usual, she tried to push them to the back of her mind, "where's he tonight?"

"Staying with Doctor Glass probably, she and my dad are together." Ben shrugged and looked slightly uneasy as he spoke his next question, "did you have any siblings?"

Tami nodded, biting her lip slightly, "two little brothers, twins actually." She took a long sip of her tea and then set it on the end table. "They didn't want to leave me. If they had had a choice they would've left the second regiment and joined our combined one, but my dad flipped out when he heard that some kids' spikes had gone away and he saw that mine were still there. He tried to talk the doctors into digging them out, but they knew better. They knew that would kill me." Tami grew quiet, chewing on her lip. She hated remembering, but she also knew that if she didn't she might forget what she was fighting for.

Ben reached over tentatively and touched her shoulder. Tami knew that she probably looked pathetic. "You don't have to do that." She muttered and stood to take her mug to the kitchen.

"I know I don't have to, Tami." She felt a shiver run up her spine when he said her name. It wasn't a bad shiver, but she hadn't felt anything like it sense before the invasion.

"You should go to bed, it's super late now." She felt like a broken record, trying to push him away by saying that over and over again.

Ben sighed, she could feel him looking at her and she found a new awareness of herself. Her pants were loose; she had lost a lot of weight. Her hair hadn't had a good wash in a long time. And she had taken to gnawing on her nails during sentry duties when she was alone. Suddenly every part of her body felt dirty and unkempt.

"I n-n-need to go groom Lila. If you insist on staying awake, at least tend the fire." Tami hadn't stuttered sense before the invasion and she knew her cheeks were reddening.

"Didn't Rushmore ask you to stay in the rest of the night?" Ben tried to catch her arm as she slipped past him and slipped out the back door.


	5. Chapter 5

(author's note: This one's the shortest so far, kind of a filler chapter. I'll update again soon!)

She hadn't brought her gun, but she would have Lila, and Lila was more reliable than any stupid gun. Tami reached into her pocket and found the bird whistle, but before she blew it the large mare came galloping out of the trees, her hooves throwing up dirt clods in her wake. They reunited happily and then Tami led the way over to the shed that they had broken into near the side of the house.

It was smaller than the tack room at her aunt's farm, but it served its purpose. She tossed the doors open and carefully picked her way around the saddles and bridals that were piled on the ground. The ones closest to the door were Lila and Steel Shanks' tack, because she and Ashton rode the most often. Then there was Willow's not far from the door, because Ariel usually rode into a fire fight to start fixing soldiers up on the go. Magnum and Sunny didn't always have riders so their tack gear was towards the back of the shed. But, she needed the brushes and combs, so she found the bucket and carried it out, setting it down right next to the shed. The girl motioned her horse closer and went through each brush as it was needed. Then her hands found the comb and she worked all the knots out of the big mare's mane and tail.

"Hey, girl." Tami muttered, leaning her head against Lila's neck. "Let's lay down for a bit, huh?" She had started to feel an ache in her shoulders and living of two or three hours of sleep didn't seem like enough at that moment. Lila seemed to understand and laid on the ground. For a moment Tami debated with herself over whether she should lay down, but then her eyes felt so droopy that she decided, "just five minutes."


	6. Chapter 6

(author's note: thanks for the reviews! I know some of my chapters can be really short, I'm still trying to learn when good breaking points are, sorry if they seem choppy!)

Tami opened her eyes lazily and found that the house was now casting a shadow over Lila and herself. She pushed herself off the ground and felt something slide off her shoulder. When she looked at the ground there was a blanket that she had seen in the living room there. Lila stood and nuzzled her before trotting over to where Magnum was standing by the tree line.

The girl put away the bucket of grooming supplies and tossed the shed closed. It felt odd to pick up the blanket, somebody would've had to put it on her, but most people she thought of would've woke her up and sent her up to bed.

The back door swung open as she approached it and she was surprised to see Johnson's face sticking out the door. "Hey! I was just coming to get you, breakfast is ready."

Tami nodded, hiding her confusion, and accepted the plate of waffles that was handed to her, some confectionary sugar tossed over it. Everybody seemed happy, but Ben was nowhere to be seen. "Where's…" She trailed off, worrying that if she seemed to eager to see him again, her friends would make fun of her.

"Ben went up to sleep for a little bit, your commander stopped by and said that some of us would stay behind to check all the houses and make sure nobody followed the First and Fifth down the road, then after an hour or two cut through the wood on foot or by horse." Maggie walked over and explained to her. "Ben also told us that you woke up early and went out to take care of Lila." The older girl winked at her, as if they had shared some kind of secret.

Tami gave a slight uncomfortable nod and looked around at her friends. The only ones without back packs set near them or hanging from their shoulders were herself, Benbow, Hal, and Maggie. She nodded thoughtfully at that grouping, they could probably work together, as long as Hal didn't try to take the lead. This was her camp, her family, he wouldn't be screwing up the way they did things.

"I should go finish packing." Tami muttered as she finished the last few bites of her waffles.

"Ben sleeps like a rock, don't worry about waking him up." Hal called after her as she hopped up the stairs.

Tami and Ariel had chosen a room that had obviously belonged to two girls. It was pure luck that whoever the room had belonged to was pretty much Tami's exact size. So, she knew it wouldn't be hard to find some clean clothes.

She slipped as quietly as she could into the room and found herself caught off guard when she saw Ben sprawled on her usual bed, shirtless, with a blanket tossed on the floor. But, she pressed that out of her mind and dug through one of the dresser drawers. She turned her head to make sure that Ben was still fast asleep and quickly tossed her sweatshirt onto the other bed and tugged her tank top up over her head. Once she tossed her pants to the ground and found herself in just her underwear she heard a surprised noise from behind her.

"Shit!" Tami dropped to the ground behind the bed post. She peaked out to see that Ben had rolled to look at the wall with his back to her

"I-I-I thought you were asleep." She squeaked.

"I'm a light sleeper!" Ben chuckled to himself.

"You have got to be kidding me!" The girl cried from her crouched position. "I'll kill your brother!"

"Sorry," Ben muttered. "Can I look yet?"

"No!" Tami snarled, grabbing a pillow that had been left on the floor and throwing it at him. "Keep your eyes covered!"

Tami quickly switched into clean panties and found a sports bra that was slightly too big. There was two pairs of jeans in another drawer, she quickly pulled one up to her hips and threw the other pair toward her back pack. In a final rush she dug a tank top out and tugged it over her head. "You can look now." She grunted, turning to look at Ben.

She hadn't noticed the spikes on his back when she first glanced to see that he was awake, but now she saw that they looked a lot worse than her own. Worse than Ashton and Ariel's too.

As he sat up and pulled on his shirt, he looked over at her, "who changes with some one of the opposite gender in the same room?"

"Your brother seemed pretty confident that I wouldn't wake you up." Tami turned away from him to stuff the extra pair of jeans and some other new clothes into her bag.

"Hal does like a good joke, he probably wasn't thinking you'd strip with me in the room, though." Ben shrugged as he stood, shouldering his gun and glancing at her pack. "Learned to pack light?"

"I'm pretty sure everybody did when they joined military regiments." Tami sighed, looking into the closet to see if she could find something warm.

The boy behind her made a noise of agreement and then headed out the door, his boots clicking against the hard wood flooring. Then Tami finally relaxed a little bit again. She had forgotten to ask him about covering for her and the blanket.

Soon the cul-de-sac was filled with trucks and families packing up and starting out. Tami stood with Benbow as they watched their regiments leaving. Hands waved at them as they left, Steel Shanks and Willow whinnied to the three horses that were staying with the seven soldiers, along with a few dirt bikes and enough fuel to get them through the woods.

"So, how does this work?" Tom asked, looking at the three members of the First and Fifth that had stayed behind.

"Walk through all the houses, make sure nothing important was left behind. But, first we follow them at a distance to make sure no scum follow them." Tami nodded in the direction that the group had driven off in.

Tami swung up onto Lila's saddle and Benbow claimed Sunny. Tami's Coach King, now higher soldier, claimed one of the bikes while Hal took another and Maggie slipped onto the back. The horse riders had given Tom a quick rundown on horseback riding, so he claimed Magnum's saddle. Then the problem came, Ben sat on the last dirt bike and tried to kick the engine to life, but it didn't work. Roars came from Hal and King's bikes, but Ben's staid dormant no matter how many times he threw his weight down on the pedal. That wasn't the only problem though, Tami sensed trouble in the trees around the road that her friends had just left on.

"Well, let me try." She heard Hal grumbling as he was about to climb off his own bike.

"No, we need to move now." Tami growled, her eyes focused on the road. "Ben, hop on with somebody else."

"Ben, I'll pull you up." Tom said as he offered his son a hand up into Magnum's saddle. "What's going on Tami?"

Ben answered before she could though, "skitters."

(another little author's note: Trying for my first ever cliff hanger! I'll update either later today or tomorrow! OOPS! Typo! watching the new episodes reminded me of Karen but that's supposed to be Maggie! Thanks for the catch! This is set some time later on, when their a little farther south, probably around Pennsylvania/New Jersey area, I'm planning on slipping in the name of a city to be more exact location wise. As the new episodes come out it'll probably get to be a bit more AU because in this Karen never came back and Ben never ran off with her.)


	7. Chapter 7

(Author's Note: Might be a few days before I update, have a lot going on this weekend. Hope you guys like this one!)

They all leaped into action, taking off after the main group. Soon Tami realized that that was exactly what the skitters wanted, they had been waiting for the after group to leave, the skitters wanted to follow them. She and Lila turned to see at least four or five aliens chasing them.

"We have to lead them away." She declared, reining up in front of Sunny and Magnum to help Tom and Benbow keep control.

"Where and how?" Tom yelled as King and Hal slid their bikes to a stop.

"There's a trail about a mile up the road, we take a left. Mag'll fight hard to keep straight; he knows he's faster that way. Remember, you're riding him, he's not just carrying you along!" Tami shouted as she got them going again.

As they approached the trail Tami ran through all the different escape routes she had planned. The turn came easily, easier for Tom than she thought it would. The razorback girl found herself worrying about the three on the dirt bikes, but she had to focus on where they would go and how they would trick the aliens.

"Tyler!" She cried.

"Listening!" The boy called his answer over the loud roar of dirt bikes and the pounding of horse hooves.

"You've got a blanket and tent stakes in your saddle bag?" Tami yelled.

"Never leave home without them." Benbow answered, a smile in his tone. Her crew knew when she was forming a plan and her plans always got them a win.

"We'll follow the curves of the path for a few miles then turn off to the right, it won't be easy going for any one, but there's a big clearing there, dump the stakes and blanket in one corner." Her brain's wheels were turning as she spoke, "I'll do the same in a different corner. King, toss anything you can to mark another corner. Tom, check your saddle bag, if there's no camping supplies there, toss a jacket or something in the last corner."

She could only hope that this crazy plan would work.

"Tam, how much further." King's voice boomed.

"Three," Tami started counting down, she had it perfectly timed for them to turn, "pull hard Tom," she reminded, "Two!" Her right foot started pressing into Lila's side, "TURN NOW!"

Lila crashed through the underbrush; she had been with Tami on the scouting mission that had led to the discovery of the meadow. Tami glanced back to see that Hal and King had successful broken through after her. Finally the nervousness that Magnum's stubbornness had given her was soothed as Benbow helped by using Sunny to herd the bigger horse.

The rest went smoothly. They deposited the border for the fake campsite and road off, with Tami still in the lead. By the time Tami felt it was safe for them to slow down all the horses were lathered and the bikes were getting low on fuel. They had traveled at least ten miles in the wrong direction to be safe and it was mid-afternoon.

"We'll probably have to camp out here." The girl sighed.

"We'll need fuel too," King called up to her as he killed the engine on his bike.

"Find some place for us to sleep." Tami grumbled, chewing on her lip thoughtfully. "Tom, Magnum probably has the most energy left." She stopped when she looked at Ben, still seated behind his father. The boy looked worn out, he had slept less than any of the others. So, she changed tactics, she would've liked one of the older men to go with her, but Coach King wasn't comfortable on horseback and Tom would probably want to stay with his sons. Would you and Ben mind switching horses?"

"But Magnum hates me!" Benbow burst out, moving Sunny away from the stallion.

"Mag just needs a firm hand." Tami sighed, looking down at Lila, who would do anything Tami told her to. "Do you want to take Lila?" She hated offering up her mare, but they needed fuel and she needed a partner.

"Sunny can make it." Benbow seemed so sure of himself, probably only because he knew how close Tami and Lila were.

"Sunny's barely four years old! He needs rest if we want him to grow as big and strong as Mag." The girl felt the pressure she always did when the skitters tried to feel for her. She turned to look at Ben and sensed a faint almost connection between him and the alien scum. "Ben! Focus! Focus on me! I know you're tired but you need to block them out!"

"You think I'm not trying?" Ben cried, pain bursting into his voice.

"Three tricks, Ashton, Ariel, and I have learned." The razorback girl burst, "one, think of your girlfriend or a girl you find hot, two, hit something really hard and focus on the pain in your hand, or three, think of a song that you kind of know the lyrics to and try to figure out the lyrics in your head."

Benbow pressed Sunny over to stand next to Lila so that he could rub Tami's back, like he had seen some adults do. "How close are they?"

"Pretty far off, they aren't pushing too hard either. It's just skitters, the masters are the ones that really hurt. I'm used to skitter buzz." Her initial instinct was to pull away from his touch, but then she remembered that it was Tyler Benbow, the boy she had known sense middle school.

"How's it going, Ben?" Hal called up to his brother.

"Alright, I guess," Ben muttered, his eyes closed.

"Sometimes singing out loud helps." Tami tried to help, "What song you got going?"

"How do you know I picked number three?" Ben answered, a slight smile in his tone.

"Well, you haven't hit anything and you're sitting kind of close to your dad to be thinking about hot chicks." Tami joked, raising her eye brows playfully.

"Don't Stop Believing." Ben smiled, opening his eyes and looking at her. "Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world, she took a midnight train goin' anywhere." He spoke the words, but they had a bit of a toon to them.

"Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit, he took a midnight train goin' anywhere." Tami giggled a little, she hadn't speak-sung lyrics with anybody but Ashton and Ariel before.

"A singer in a smokey room, a smell of wine and cheap perfume!" Hal belted out.

"For a smile they can share the night, it goes on and on and on," Their father added.

Tami was about to jump into the chorus, but she paused when the pressure disappeared. "They gave up." She said, almost disappointed.

"Maybe Ben should go with you, in case they try anything like whatever just happened again." Maggie suggested.

"And you guys can just ride double on Lila, sense Mag is such a problem and Sunny needs rest." Coach King suggested. "We'll need at least a tank full, probably more."

"But, Ben needs rest even more than Sunny does." Tami argued a little, "he was up longer than I was."

Benbow raised an eyebrow at her, "weren't Hal and Maggie supposed to take a turn too?"

"Well, I wasn't tired and Ben had been ready for night watch back at their camp." The girl explained, starting to get annoyed with people not just listening to her orders. King was understandable, he had been trying to help, but Benbow was just being difficult.

"Uhm, Ben's right here." The razorback raised his hand and waved.

"We're used to running on little sleep anyway." Hal shrugged.

"Can I talk please?" Ben growled, glaring at his brother for interrupting him. Once everyone was looking at him he rolled his eyes and said, "I'm going with Tami, if we get back and there isn't some place soft-ish and safe-ish for me to sleep I'll kick somebody's butt." He shot another warning glance at Hal.

Tami sighed again and watched as he tried to ease off of Magnum and ended up toppling to the ground in a heap. A few chuckles slipped from the group. "Next time, Tom, you should take your foot out of the stirrup so that Ben can just step into it and swing his other leg around. It's not easy, but it hurts a little less than that version."

"Thanks for the tip." Ben grumbled, brushing some dirt off his shirt.

Tami reached her hand out to him and slipped her foot out of the stirrup. Ben seemed unsure at first, but climbed up anyway. Tami slid as far forward in the saddle so that it wouldn't be too uncomfortable for Ben. But, he slid right up against her and rested one hand on her thigh while adjusting the strap of his gun with the other.

"We'll be back by sun down." Tami promised, "Tom and Coach King share the lead."

Then, she wheeled Lila around, trying to ignore where Ben's hands rested on different parts of her. There was really no way to give personal space with two people in a one person saddle.

"I don't want this to take all day, do you mind if we go a bit faster?" Tami knew that if she pushed Lila to a gallop or trot instead of a walk Ben would have to hang on pretty tight. And she wasn't sure if she liked that idea.

"Let's just get this over with." Tami felt Lila go faster and glanced down at their feet to see that Ben had his heels pressed into the mare's sides.

"Have you ridden horseback before?" She called over her shoulder.

"Nope, I'm just observant, it's how all of you got them to go so fast when we were getting away." Ben muttered, matter-of-fact like.

Tami felt a chill go up her spine and realized that her spikes were probably digging into Ben's front. "Oh jeez! I'm sorry!" She cried, pressing forward in the saddle.

"What?" Ben jumped at her sudden movements.

"My spikes are digging into you, aren't they?" Tami pressed Lila faster as she spoke.

"Not hugging you that tight." Ben muttered. Then Lila jumped up speed again, "yet!"

Tami smiled then, she decided she could have some fun with this. She had run through those woods with Lila at least six times in the two weeks that they had stayed at the cul-de-sac. She knew where a downed tree was and used it to her advantage.

Pulling a sharp right she tugged slightly on the reins as the tree came into view. Lila whinnied happily and jumped the dead tree easily, landing gracefully on the other side. Tami had ignored Ben for those few moments of pure bliss but when she came back to reality she felt his arms wrapped tightly around her midsection, fingers locked around his own elbows. Now she knew he had to feel her spikes. But she didn't say anything because they came to a road with a grocery store across the street.

It was risky but there were a few abandoned cars left in the parking lot. So, the razorbacks rode over to the first vehicle, a minivan, and both breathed a sigh of relief to see two red gas cans in the back. Their dismount was fairly graceful and joy touched both their faces when they realized that the gas cans were both full.

"This is as good as it gets!" Tami cried triumphantly as she pushed the back of the van closed.

"Yeah, but how're we going to get it back?" Ben asked, tilting his head.

"We need some kind of rope…" Tami trailed off looking through the other windows of the van.

"What about bungee cords?" Ben asked, looking at a few that hung from the top of the van.

"Perfect!" Tami answered, taking the cords and hooking them strategically to the saddle and then hooking the gas jugs to the other ends. Finally she reached into her saddle bag and came out with some duct tape. She used that to be sure everything was secure.

"Tami?" Ben growled, his voice low. When the girl turned to look at him she saw the worry in his eyes. Then she felt the odd pressure at the back of her mind.

She had been so focused on securing the fuel that she hadn't heard the wail that had been at least a mile off when Ben first heard it. But, now she realized exactly what was coming, one of the aliens' giant robots. And with the robots always came what the Second Mass called skitters.

"Lila, hide!" Tami ordered the mare, slapping her rump to get her going off toward the trees. Then she crouched next to the van on the side opposite the source of the noise.

But the male razorback had a better idea, he threw open one of the van's side door and motioned her in. They crouched between the seats both holding their breath. Tami's leg started to tremble from the unaccustomed position. But, she ignored it as the loud clangs and odd noises that the skitters made when they walked grew closer. The van vibrated slightly with each step the machine took. If Tami had been with one of her usual partners they would've been huddled close, possibly even holding each other. But she didn't know Ben that well, so she kept her distance.

"Why the hell did you send the horse away?" Ben snarled low when the sounds of the robot and its companions receded a bit.

"Would we have been able to get on and ride off before those things saw us?" Tami shot back, her voice barely above a whisper.

Ben silently nodded in understanding.

They waited a while after the mechanical noises were out of hearing distance. Then, they exited the van and the girl dug her bird whistle out of her pocket.

"Hey, wait." Ben called from beside one of the other vacant cars.

"What?" Tami grumbled, half wanting to ignore him.

"We'll all be hungry soon." The boy called, opening one of the doors and pulling a box of granola bars from the middle console.

Tami swung up into the saddle and walked Lila over to him, holding her hand out to take the box, which hadn't even been opened. "Is there anything else in there?" She asked as she tore open the box and dumped the individually wrapped bars into the saddlebag.

Ben opened the back door and leaned into the seat, coming out with a bag of groceries. The bread that had been left for so long was no good, but the box of Hostess Twinkies was definitely still good. Along with the box of crackers and three bottles of vitamin water, Tami saw that they had a feast.

They rode back to the group with a full saddlebag and arms full of crackers and vitamin water. It was a pretty happy reunion. The others had been just close enough to hear the metallic sounds of danger and had even started planning a rescue mission for if the razorback duo didn't make it back by nightfall.

"You sure know how to treat a guy." Benbow joked, as he ate one of the granola bars.

Tami was busy taking all of the tack off the horses to eat but she had time to flash him a smile. "I have another surprise for after dinner too." She said, loud enough for the rest of the group to hear. Ben looked at her and the pair shared a wink.

"Alright, Mom, we'll eat all our veggies." Her old coach chuckled.

Everybody started settling in as it started to grow darker. Tami handed out the Twinkies and plenty of jokes flew around about how Twinkies had survived the apocalypse.

"Who's taking first watch?" Tami asked, hoping somebody would volunteer soon so that she and Ben could get some sleep.

"I will." Maggie offered sitting up from where she had been laying in the grass.

Hal offered for second and then Tom and King claimed third and fourth. It would be an easy night, Tami could feel it. Until she heard Benbow's voice whining.

"Why can't we have a fire?" He whimpered.

"Tyler. Daniel. Benbow. You whine one more time and I will personally kick your ass." Tami snarled, rolling over so that she wouldn't have to look at him. Her sharp tongue quieted everyone and they finally got to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Tami sat up from her sleeping place, a crack running all the way up her back. After two weeks of a real mattress, the ground hadn't been all that nice to her.

"Morning, sunshine." Benbow growled, still angry with her for snapping at him the night before.

The girl glanced around at her group. Ben was sitting up and talking to his dad. King was nudging Hal and Maggie apart to wake them up. And then there was Tyler, sitting sullenly in the same spot he had slept in.

"Quit pouting and start tacking up the horses." Tami ordered. Her friends could get out of line every once in a while, and when she had to put them in their place it always resulted in some tension.

"Whatever." The boy grumbled, standing up and stomping off.

"You know, I could set him on wash duty for a few days to set him straight." The old track coach was standing over her with a hand outstretched.

She took it grateful and stood. "You think we can move out within the hour?"

"I think we're all ready to be back with our families." King said with a smile. Until he saw the slight change in Tami's face, "kid, you know family isn't just blood, right?"

Tami nodded noncommittally and shrugged. The sweatshirt she had chosen was as thick as she had originally thought, and it wasn't exactly warm. Winter was on its way and she used that thought to ignore the memories of her little brothers.

"How're we riding today, guys?" She addressed the group as Hal and Maggie stretched and rubbed sleep from their eyes.

"I don't think I'd mind trying a horse." Maggie answered, "I heard all the directions you gave Tom back at the cul-de-sac, think I could try Sunny today?"

Tami almost said that Benbow would be riding the gelding, but then she remembered how Benbow had been acting. "Yup, King, mind if Ty rides with you?"

"Not a bit." He flashed Tami a smile, knowing that taking Sunny away was a little bit of rebuke.

"I'd like to try a solo ride on Magnum." Ben put forward, almost sounding shy as he said it.

"If you think you can handle him, I'll ride with Hal." Tom nodded and then remembered who was actually in lead of their mission, "if hat's alright with Tami, of course."

Tami bobbed her head, flashing Tom a smile to show that his step wasn't out of line.

"Wait, then where's Maggie going to ride?" Benbow rejoined the group with a saddled and bridled Sunny following behind.

"She's taking Sunny, you're riding with King." Tami growled, walking over to take the reins from her friend. He didn't argue for once, but his glare made Tami even angrier.

So, she tacked up the other to horses and helped Maggie and Ben into their saddles as King and Tom got the dirt bikes ready. Finally she swung up into her own saddle. "Let's ride."

They all took off, following the razorback girl. It was evident that she was the only one who knew the woods at all, but she chose not to take advantage of that.

It was hours later when they reached the cul-de-sac. They hadn't been pushing the horses too hard, sense they weren't being chased.

"Home, sweet home." King muttered, glancing at the ravaged houses.

"I hope we didn't leave anything important." Tami sighed.

"Why'd they do this?" Tom asked, obviously not used to the site that the skitters had created for them.

"They're looking for me." Tami groaned, rubbing the back of her neck.

"And Ariel and Ashton." King corrected.

"Have you guys talked to the skitter rebels?" Ben asked, excitement and hope surging through his voice.

"Once." Tami growled, the memory angered her, "we'll talk later."

With that she took off in between the houses, toward the woods. It didn't take long to cut through, even the bikes had an easy time. But, the site that greeted them made Tami slightly sad.

"Moving out already." Hal observed with a sigh. That was when the razorback girl realized that he and Maggie were still just kids, like her and her friends they hated the pick up and move lifestyle. But it was the only way to survive in the new world.

"They're back!" They heard a happy cry come from one of the people packing up the cars and trucks. Then others picked it up.

"What took you so long?" Dr. Glass met them as they were all dismounting.

"Had a little problem, but the brilliant young lady took care of it." Tom answered, motioning to Tami as he walked into the doctor's hug.

"Matt!" Ben called as a small blonde haired boy came running out of the crowd.

At that Tami decided to go find her friends. So she pulled the bridals off of the three horses and left their saddles on to make it a quicker leave but give them some time to graze.

"Hey, razorback!" A familiar voice called to her. She spun to see one of the other teen soldiers, also one of her best friends, Mark Dansworth jogging toward her.

"Shut up!" She answered playfully.

Soon all the teen soldiers that had stayed together at the cul-de-sac were reunited. There was loud laughter and some gawking faces from the Second Mass, but it was mostly just joy that they wouldn't be putting together any make-shift funerals for that day.

Later on she found herself in the only tent that still stood, the Second Mass' command center.

"You wanted to see me, Sir?" She inquired as the tent flap closed behind her.

Rushmore nodded and motioned to the seat next to him, which Tami silently took.

As her eyes scanned the tent she noticed that she was the only teen there. The seats around the table held her own to commanders, Second Mass' Weaver and Mason, and then there was a smattering of soldiers, all of which were from the Second Mass.

"So we'll send the Berserkers out ahead as scouts." Weaver seemed stressed, but the girl was used to seeing that in her own leaders.

"I'd like to know when I get back the privilege of leading them." A pretty scummy looking guy in one of the corners spoke up and stepped to the table.

"Pope, they don't want you as their leader and we don't need anything reckless." Tom growled at him. Tami hadn't seen the father of three ever get hostile, even when a gun was pointed at his head. But, this guy, Pope, had set him off. What really surprised her though was when Tom turned to her. "Tami, you're a good leader and we want to mix the Second Mass with the Yankees as quickly as we can."

Rushmore nodded and looked at her expectantly.

"But, I have my own group to lead." Her shoulders ached at the thought of keeping track of all her friends, a whole new group guarantied trouble among the ranks.

"And we want you to add most of them to the Berserkers." Rushmore had a tone that she had gotten extremely used to. It was the tone that he used when he knew that he had already won.

"What the hell is a Berserker anyway?" Tami grumbled. Her captains understood that she was giving up but Weaver and Tom didn't.

"It's the group's title." Tom explained, "they do what nobody else wants to, from what we've heard about you and yours, you do about the same jobs."

"Wait a goddamn second." The Pope guy burst out. "I dealt with it when Tom took control, hell I expected it, but this little girl is supposed to lead a band of full grown men and women?"

"She's been helping lead the First and Fifth for months." Williams growled, it surprised Tami a little to hear him defender her, but then she also realized he followed the system of ranks strictly. This guy obviously didn't.

"Well, that's all fine and dandy, but my boys won't listen to her." Pope sounded final as he said it.

"We'll see about that." Tami growled, standing from her seat. "Tell me where they are and give me our assignment. I'll figure out who'll work best with them and bring them with us."

"I'll take you to them and I'll tell you what we need." Tom sounded surprised.

As they walked Tom explained that they needed scouts. But, it wasn't just a regular scouting ahead; they needed to find places to stay, which would mean checking through small towns, possibly small cities. That's what had people shying away so quickly, places that had once been populated were often crawling with skitters and mechs.

"This is them?" She muttered, slightly surprised by how rough they looked.

"They're good guys if you give them a chance." Tom answered, touching his hand to her back. It was meant to comfort, but Tami jumped away and flashed an apologetic smile.

"I should go introduce myself." Tami shrugged, and dove into the thicket of fairly dirty men and women.

The introductions went smoothly, though she would never remember all of their names. One, who seemed like he could be pretty helpful, was named Anthony. Then she remembered Pope from the tent, though he hadn't been with the rest of the group to greet her. Most of the Berserkers had warned her that he was a potential problem, but her mind set was that she would be able to deal with anything.

"So our charming new little leader has decided to converse with the ranks." Pope's voice growled sarcastically as he walked up behind her, "Oh, and perfect, she's spiky!"

Tami turned, her mouth set in a grim line. She had gotten attitude from her friends before, but this was new.

"Listen up, pipsqueak, I don't plan on listening to you at all." The older man growled, moving toward her, "and my boys are still mine, I'll be giving them orders."

"F-f-fuck you, Pope." She realized how young she sounded, stumbling over a swear word. Pope was sent into a fit of laughter so hard that he actually leaned against a nearby truck.

So, Tami took that chance to set him off his balance and pin him to the truck. "Remember, Pope," she spat his name with as much venom as she could muster. "Spiky kids have some pretty weird quarks." With that she let him up and stepped back, her eyes smoldering with hate.

Without a word the scummy man shot her a glare and stomped off. But before he could get too far Tami yelled after him, "Pope, be ready in a half hour, the Berserkers'll move out with or without you."

"Nicely done." The young razorback turned to see the man named Anthony walking toward her with a couple of the other Berserkers at his sides.

Tami shrugged, the shyness of the world before the alien invasion seeping back into her. Every day she fought the urge to avert her eyes and mumble responses. It was people like Pope that reminded her how much she hated dealing with people. She had gotten by as the quietly eccentric Tami. Now she had to speak up, to be a leader.

"How did I get myself into this?" She muttered, forgetting that the men in front of her weren't the three boys she was used to.

"What was that?" The smaller of the two men whose names she had forgotten asked, pulling her into reality.

"Nothing!" She squeaked, biting her lip. She had to be strong, not nervous and stutter squeaky.

"You got yourself into this by being you." Comfort washed over the girl at the voice of Ashton, "you're so f-f-f-fucking stubborn and smart that nobody wanted to have to deal with you, so they just stuck you in charge." They were back to mocking their pains to get past them.

"Ash, you're riding with the Berserkers." Tami ordered as best she could.

"That's more like it." He said under his breath as he passed her.

After a bit of thought she chose Mark and Tyler Johnson to be the last additions to the Berserkers. They didn't take much convincing.

"You think the asshole'll show up?" Tami heard Ashton commenting to the twiggy Berserker from early. The guys name had turned out to be Boon and he was apparently friends with Tom and Matt Mason.

"He will, nobody else wants him around." Boon muttered with a shrugged.

"Hell, ever sense Weaver gave us to Mason the guy has been a complete ass." The bigger guy from earlier, Lyle, answered as he walked past with two red gas cans in each hand.

"And I thought I was a complete ass before that." The man snarled as he walked into the group's preparations. "What the hell are those?" Pope was staring at Lila and Steel Shanks.

"Horses." Ashton answered, angry sarcasm thick in his voice as he pulled his pack onto his back and checked his saddle bag one more time.

"You want to check your tone, boy." Pope rounded on the razorback.

"Careful, boy, he's spiky too." Tami snapped at the older man, "plus, he's my second. Do you know what that means?"

"He's a hell of a lot higher up than you!" Mark cried, hopping up into the bed of the Berserker's only truck.

"We got three bikes, two horses, one ATV, and one truck, correct?" Tami ended Pope's argument with her final preparations.

"Yes, sir." Johnson called up from the cab of the truck, playful sarcasm dancing in his voice.

"Well then, sir, where am I supposed to ride?" Pope growled.

"Who's got room?" The girl demanded.

The truck's cab was full and Mark was surrounded by fuel cans. Many of the Berserkers shifted so that it appeared as though they had no room on their transportation device. Tami's eyes turned pleadingly to Ashton and found a mirror expression.

"Fucking bastards." She snarled under her breath, "you're with me."

"On what, exactly?" Just thinking about having to share a saddle with him made her skin crawl.

"Lila." With that Tami climbed into her saddle and held her hand out.

Pope seemed almost nervous as he stared at the mare, who was only about two feet taller than him.

"It's either with me or with the civies." She was sick of the delay.

"Don't prick me and I won't prick you." The man muttered as he took her hand and clumsily slid behind her.

Finally they started out. Ashton took the lead while Tami fell back to take the rear. Their pace wasn't slow, but they also kept it so that the horses wouldn't tire too quickly. The whole ride Tami found herself wondering how Pope kept so much more distance than Ben had.

Ben had been flush against her back the entire time they rode. He also had kept both hands touching her somewhere, whether it was leg, hip, or midsection. Pope, however, only let his thighs barely touch the sides of her legs and his front barely brushed her back. He also kept the touching to a minimum. Whenever Lila would stomp unexpectedly or do something that Tami had not command his hands would latch onto the belt loops of her jeans, but when they had an easy, straight, flat path his hands disappeared.

"Wait!" The girl cried, pulling Lila to a stop. "Woah," she muttered soothingly as Lila backed up in agitation.

Her senses strained toward the noise she had heard in the woods only moments ago.

"Pope, you have to get off so that I can." She didn't trust him on Lila without her.

"What is it, Tam?" Mark called from just ahead.

She held a finger to her lip as they dismounted Lila. There it was again!

"I'll be back!" The razorback girl burst out, breaking into a sprint into the woods, "stay there!"

(A/N: I might start trying to get on a schedule with this, like update every other day. How does that sound? Hope you all liked this!)


	9. Chapter 9

(A/N: There'll be spoilers in this note! Sorry guys, I had a surgery and I didn't realize it would knock me out so bad and blehh. But anyway, I should address that I don't want to go severely AU but as people, Boon for example, die in the show I'll probably still write about them. I said before that as the show goes on this'll get a bit more AU like it's in an AU where Ben never left the Second Mass and yadda yadda yadda. I'm going to try to update again soon but I'm still pretty wiped so I make no promises about the quality of this chapter, but I tried!)

When Pope, Anthony, Ashton, and Mark finally caught up to her she was kneeling on the ground surrounded by little furry things.

"What the hell?" Pope snapped.

"Damn it, Tam, even after an alien apocalypse." Mark's voice would've sounded harsh to most, but Tami could hear the laugh rumbling in his throat.

"How many?" Ashton asked, his tone slightly annoyed but not at all surprised.

"There are two litters, one of the moms is dead and the other doesn't look so good." She knew she sounded young, but when she had heard the little whimpering she hadn't been able to ignore it.

"How many puppies?" Her fellow razorback moved forward and looked around the base of the tree where two full grown dogs laid. One had no life to it, a pup nuzzled its ear and there was no reaction. The other had little life, she half heartedly growled at him and tried to rise but ended up back on the ground.

"Nine, six from the bigger one and three from the one that's alive." Tami muttered, she was already figuring out how to collect all the pups. Two of them were small enough to fit in the thin sweatshirt's pockets. She was pressing the bottom of the sweatshirt to her stomach with one hand while trying to maneuver one of the little balls of fur with the other.

She heard Ashton's exasperated sigh and broke into a grin. He wasn't arguing.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Pope snarled when he saw Ashton gently scooping up the mother that was alive.

"We'll only loose maybe a half hour of travel time, the camp won't even be completely packed up. You guys have a med bus which means Ariel can take care of them easily on the go." Mark explained. He had known Tami best before the invasion; it dawned on her now that she hadn't actually had a chance to talk with him in a long time.

"It would raise morale." Anthony sounded surprised. The girl on the ground suspected that he had never had something as unexpected as this happen before, but he was adapting well.

"Whatever, keep them the fuck away from me." Pope sounded ticked, but he wasn't arguing. That in itself was a miracle.

So they gathered up all the living canines and started back toward the road. Tami wanted to do something for the dead mother, but she knew that if she wanted the pups she had to get everything going efficiently.

"Tami, I'll ride with you and the dogs can take the spot in the truck bed that I was sitting in." Mark offered.

"No, Pope's riding with me. I can keep all four pups that I have, do you think the mama can sit on your lap with the three that you have?" She was trying to figure it out on the fly and it seemed almost crazy to try to hold the pups that were in her sweatshirt. They squirmed and she had almost dropped one of them three times on the walk back to the road.

"How the hell are you going to hang on to them?" Ashton asked as they started settling Mark back into the truck bed.

That's when Tami felt in her saddle bag and realized it was nearly empty, only a couple Twinkies and a granola bar from her last ride.

"Who's hungry?" She asked, pulling all three items out with her semi free hand.

"Are those Twinkies?" Mark sounded shocked.

"Call one!" Ashton cried.

"Dibs on the other!" Johnson had been watching the procession of puppies in silence up to that point.

"Damn it," Mark glared at the other two boys, "give me the granola bar."

So, Tami tossed the snacks to the boys and then gently settled the two pups that she had tucked inside her sweatshirt into the saddle bag. With it open they could easily squirm around, but they were small enough that they couldn't easily fall out.

"Me and the people in the truck'll head back, I want the rest to stay here. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." That was the command she usually gave to her friends, it came out almost automatically. When she looked around a smile touched her lips at the half surprised smiles of the men and women she was now giving orders to.

Without another word the horse and the truck took off back toward camp. They hadn't been out long so when they reentered the area some nervous civilians started throwing the last few odds and ends into trucks.

"No, no, you're all fine!" Tami called to the unfamiliar faces.

"Yeah, we just brought back a bunch of little mouths to feed." Pope growled.

Without thinking about it, Tami's elbow jerked back and caught the older man in his ribs.

"What's going on, Kent?" Captain Williams was the first superior to meet them. That didn't give the girl much hope.

"I'll only be here a moment, sir." She bit her lip hard, praying that Rushmore would come to her rescue.

"That's not what I asked." He snapped.

Pope decided to speak up at that point, "she got all warm and fuzzy for some mutts that we found by the road. Six of them don't have a mom, but we figured maybe it'd give some civies something to do."

"Tami! What's wrong?" Willow came trotting up with Ariel on her back.

"Is there any room in the Second Mass' med bus?" Tami was in a bit of a daze after being slightly assisted by Pope.

"Yeah, there's a few beds." Ariel seemed to have calmed once she realized that Ashton wasn't with Tami. They all knew that the razorbacks never left each other behind in battles.

"Think somebody else could ride Willow and you could take care of these guys?" Tami reached down into her saddle bag and pulled one of the pups out, he had fallen asleep and yipped in surprise when he was pulled out.

"Of course, how many are there?" Ariel didn't seem overly surprised but a bit of excitement glimmered in her eyes as well.

"Nine, plus a mom that'll be able to take care of the three that are a bit younger." Tami tried to quiet the pup that was now crying loudly.

"You'll be keeping at least one." Ariel smiled, swinging down from Willow and handing her reigns off to preteen from the Fifth New York. The girl was good with the horses and seemed to understand the importance of keeping the mare happy and healthy.

"You know me too well." Tami grinned, glad to see that Captain Williams was retreating, obviously not up for an argument.

"Mark, take her to the Med Bus, Lourdes and Anne'll be ready to go, tell them I'll be joining them to take care of the animals." Ariel was all business then, holding her hands out to collect the three puppies the Tami wouldn't be keeping.

"Already first name basis?" Tami cocked her head playfully to the side.

"You've got a strange man behind you who rebuked Williams pretty well." Ariel's eyebrow cocked up, "how the hell did you carry more than two?"

"Two in the pockets, their small enough that it works." Tami shrugged, pulling the pups that had been in her sweatshirt pockets out and debating over which one she wanted to keep with her.

"Keep them both, I'll be right back with some of the powdered formula and one of the bottles." Ariel turned on her heal and walked off, as she went she caught some of the First and Fifth's people telling them to collect the left over pups from the truck bed.

As the familiar faces passed Lila they called greetings to Tami. The First and Fifth owed many lives to the razorbacks and the group of teens that worked with them. They were always warm toward that group.

"Jesus, you're like the Tom Mason of the Yankees, huh?" Pope sounded surprised.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The girl felt instinctively defensive.

"Nothin'." Pope sounded different at that moment, but Tami didn't have time to analyze because Ariel reappeared.

"I'm putting these in the truck with Mark, there's a table spoon in one of them. If you can get warm water they'll probably take it better but I know you can figure out how to do this. You can probably also figure out how to feed them on the go." Ariel tucked two containers of baby formula in the truck bed and then handed a couple of full, warm bottles to Tami. "The others'll be fine. Take care of yourself and them."

The two female razorbacks exchanged a long glance, it had been a while sense they had been able to sit and chat. They usual did at least once every couple days, but it had been too crazy in the past few days.

"Tami, find another good camp spot soon." Ariel reached up and squeezed her friends hand before running off.

(A/N: I don't want to seem annoying or anything but I would really like reviews, this is my first story that I've posted so I'd love anything constructive or anything really!)


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